Hurricane Arthur Contributes to Rainy Holiday

A flash flood warning is in effect for New London County.

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A flood warning is in effect for New London County. Check our interactive weather radar for updates.

Following heavy rains and severe thunderstorms on Thursday, more rain is in the forecast for the 4th of July Friday and Hurricane Arthur continues to travel north along the East Coast.

The flash flood warning for New London County expired at 1:15 p.m., but there is a flood watch in effect in northern New London, Fairfield, Middlesex and New Haven counties until 10 p.m. Ocean Beach Park is closed Friday due to lightning and strong currents.

There's also a flood watch is in effect Friday until 11 p.m. for Hartford, Tolland and Windham counties, including Hartford, Windsor Locks, Union, Vernon, Putnam and Willimantic, according to the National Weather Service.

Hurricane Arthur was downgraded to a category 1 hurricane Friday at about 9: 30 a.m. and is about 150 miles east of Connecticut, according to NBC meteorologist Monica Cryan. That's after the storm had been upgraded to a category 2 storm on Thursday evening.

Expect rain throughout the day, particularly in eastern Connecticut, lingering in parts of the state until midnight and likely clearing up in western Connecticut by 5 p.m., Cryan said. You may hear scattered rumbles of thunder.

Grove Road and Garden Terrace are blocked off Friday, as of 1:33 p.m., as crews make repairs to three telephone poles snapped due to the storms overnight and high winds that also blew down trees and caused power outages. According to CL&P, 80 customers were without power in Meriden as of 4:48 p.m.

A neighbor told NBC Connecticut that lightning struck a pole CL&P crews are working to repair and that caused it to snap.

Connecticut Light & Power crews are on scene. Seventy-eight CL&P customers are currrently without power in Glastonbury.

Route 21 reopened in Thompson after it was closed overnight, but there are several trees down in the area so police said to be cautious if you choose to drive on that route.

Nearly 20,000 customers were without power Thursday at the height of the storms, according to the Connecticut Light & Power outage map. Just before noon on Friday, 2,526 customers were without power.

Berlin police reported trees and wires down across town on Thursday, particularly in the Worthington Ridge area, and Southington police said they dealt with numerous accidents on Thursday evening, some of which may be weather related.

The state Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security is monitoring the hurricane and keeping tabs on potential indirect impacts to Connecticut, according to a news release from Gov. Dannel Malloy's office.

The town of Old Saybrook prepared ahead of time by launching StormArthur.com to keep residents up to date on the storm's developments.

More information about the state's response to Arthur can be found online.

Anyone who loses power during the storms should call Connecticut Light & Power at 1-800-286-2000.

The best news is that the rain is expected to move out late Friday, leaving the second part of the holiday weekend dominated by beautiful sunny weather Saturday and Sunday.

People planning on going to Rhode Island beaches this weekend should be cautious and check for the latest Arthur update and weather forecast before heading out.